Thursday, 14 August 2014

Schezwan Sauce Flavoured Mini Bread Cigars | Indo-Chinese Preparation

There’s no major recipe in today’s post but it’s a concept in itself which can generate many more ideas and hence the preparation left me content. The preparation was created completely out of an attempt to finish off a few things lying in the fridge. There were a few slices of bread left from the loaf I had made after baking the Komaj and there was half a bottle of readymade Shezwan sauce giving me constant stare every time I opened the fridge.

I have posted crispy salsa cubes earlier and that post was loved by many. So walking on the same line I tried to create these beautiful mini cigars which were loved by the kid and his friends as they were sent in the school’s snack box. The kid came back smiling from the school having eaten the fried food which had bag full of flavours from the sauce and other condiments added. And I was happy too as I was able to finish off stuff which could have gone waste, so one can call it best out of waste or leftover. I have shaped them as cigars but one is free to shape them into cubes, balls, ovals or whatever shape they like.

I adjusted the flavours to get a more authentic Indo-Chinese taste which obviously the readymade sauce was lacking and hence lying in the fridge. After making it, I realised that this would make an excellent starter for parties or kitty parties and what’s best was I was able to freeze a few of them too.

I made a dip to go with it using the Schezwan sauce, so tried to use the sauce in every which way also the sauce enhanced the schezwan flavour.

Method For Mini Cigars

Crush the bread in the mixer and mix all the ingredients except the bread crumbs and salt to it.

Check for salt and adjust the consistency by adding the bread crumbs. The dough consistency should be medium soft.

Break the dough into equal portions and shape them with a lightly wet hands as mini cigars or cylinders.

Heat the oil and keep on medium high. Deep fry 4-5pieces at the same time. The temperature of the oil should not be reduced as what’s obtained by frying is just the colour and crunch, the ingredients used in the preparation as such require no further cooking. Also, low temperature will cause more oil absorption.

Once fried to a golden colour, remove on a kitchen towel and serve with shezwan-mayo dip.

Method For Dip

Mix all the ingredients other than spring onions and chill the dip covered with a cling wrap till served. Add spring onions just before serving.